Close a gun sale loophole

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says that 25 to 50 percent of those who peddle firearms at gun shows aren't licensed dealers but private individuals who set up tables.
This situation is perfectly legal -- and dangerous.
A gun show visitor buying a firearm from a licensed dealer at the venue must submit to a computerized background check.

This is not a major hassle. The computers are on site. The check takes a matter of a minutes, at most. And the lookup provides a modicum of assurance that the gun is not being handed to a crook or a psycho.
But thanks to a loophole in federal law, a few feet away at the very next display table, a person who is not a licensed dealer, but who may be selling the very same models of pistols, rifles and shotguns, has no obligation to run background checks.
As members of the New Jersey chapter of the Million Mom March note, this endangers even those of us who live in states where strict laws have pretty much put an end to gun shows. Guns, like people, travel.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) has been pushing legislation to close the gun show loophole since 1999, and he has again introduced a bill that would make all sales at gun shows subject to background checks, anywhere in the nation. This measure deserves quick approval.
Among the supporters of the measure are some families of victims of the Virginia Tech shootings, who have appeared with Lautenberg and others, urging action to plug the loophole.
Opponents have insisted the Virginia Tech tragedy is irrelevant to this issue because the architect of the massacre there last spring, Cho Seung Hui, did not get his guns at a show but through regular licensed gun dealers. Cho also passed the instant background checks in the process despite a local court's earlier finding that he was mentally ill.
The opponents miss the point. Cho's bloody spree was a wake-up call to plug all leaks in America's gun sale laws.
To minimize the chances that another Cho might slip through the background checks, President Bush recently signed legislation to provide money and other incentives to the states to ensure that psychiatric and other records make it to the instant check database.
Congress should now pass -- and Bush should sign -- a law requiring thorough character checks for every gun show buyer, not just those who happen to go to certain tables.